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Perfecto earns NL Player of the Week for Cain

Perfecto earns NL Player of the Week for Cain

6/13/12: Matt Cain strikes out a career-best 14 batters and retires 27 consecutive Astros for the 22nd perfect game in Major League history

By Joey Nowak
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MLB.com |

Matt Cain can now add a National League Player of the Week honor to what has surely been one of the finest seven-day stretches of the Giants right-hander's career.

Cain, who threw the 22nd perfect game in Major League history on Wednesday against the Astros, earned the weekly award for the first time in his career.

The right-hander struck out 14 batters in the 10-0 win against the visiting Astros, becoming the first pitcher in the 130-year history of the Giants franchise to record a perfect game.

The 14 strikeouts were a career high and tied Sandy Koufax's record for most strikeouts recorded in a perfect game (Sept. 9, 1965). It was also the highest strikeout total in a no-hitter since Nolan Ryan struck out 16 on May 1, 1991, against Toronto.

Cain, who also singled and scored on a Gregor Blanco home run in the fifth inning of the game, became the first pitcher ever to score a run in a perfect game.

The two-time All-Star has won a career-best seven consecutive decisions, and owns an 8-2 mark on the season with a 2.18 ERA.

Cain joins Philip Humber as the only other pitcher to toss a perfect game this season, and it marks just the third time in Major League history that two perfect games have been recorded in the same season (1880 -- Monte Ward and Lee Richmond; 2010 -- Roy Halladay and Dallas Braden).

Joey Nowak is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @joeynowak.‬ This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.